Dangerous storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes can occur with little warning. For dangerous fast approaching storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes, safe emergency shelters are needed to protect persons and property from the immediate harm and destruction. Tornadoes are normally seasonal with the months of March through June being the most active. Approximately twenty percent of all tornadoes occur during the months of July through October, and less than ten percent occur during November through January. Tornadoes have been recorded with wind speeds of over 300 mph and can stay on the ground for over one hour. Flying debris can cause much injury and destruction. In recent years, more than 1,000 twisters have killed in excess of one hundred twenty people and caused millions of dollars in property damage in the United States. The dollar figure for the damage caused by tornadoes which have struck Oklahoma City, Okla. in May, 1999 alone has exceeded more than 90 million dollars.
Hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew, Wilma and Katrina have been known to cause catastrophic damages in the billions of dollars. Regardless of catastrophic damages that occur from tornadoes, hurricanes, and other hazards, relatively little protection against them is provided because of variously prohibitive problems with present protection alternatives. Thus, there exists a need for emergency shelters.
The National Tornado Forum has announced an effort to encourage more people to build “safe rooms” (emergency shelters). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) have programs and financing in place the encourage people to put their families in “safe rooms” (shelters). The average family moves approximately every seven years. Thus, reusable and individualized shelters would be desirable.
A variety of emergency shelters previously have been pre-manufactured for field uses constructed of cement, steel, fiberglass and other materials. Others have been manufactured in an assembled condition for particular applications. None of these prior art shelters can be site-assembled from matching parts and possess the ability of being moveable or relocateable to another address, should the owner decide to relocate, as this invention.
As is well known between the times a tornado is spotted or warnings are given, there is usually very little time for individuals and families to seek shelter. Additionally, hurricanes have little warnings and are known to change direction with little advance notice.
Since community shelters are not close by to everyone needing the shelter and these types of shelters often do not allow for pets, there is a need for personal relocatable shelters and/or shelters for pets in close proximity to an individual's home.
Various patents have been proposed over the years as shelters but fail to provide safe, reliable, and easily relocatable shelters for individuals and/or pets.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,003,271 to Boyer et al. describes a pre-case security vault device that includes components that can be transported to a construction sites. However, this device includes the assembly of permanently affixing the components together such as by using permanent fasteners such as “welds”, and the pouring of “concrete” for floors, and the like, and nonremovable fill such as “grout” at the site, column 1, lines 37-38, column 2, lines 66+, column 3, lines 1-10, 12-25, 60-65, column 4, lines 2-4, 37-43. No where does Boyer et al. describe, nor suggest being able to easily disassemble the vault to be able to be relocated at subsequent sites. Additionally, neither description, nor suggestion is given in the Boyer “vault” for ventilation purposes to allow humans to be sheltered therein. While Boyer mentions that it may be desirable in the background section of the patent to “protect property from damage or theft or to serve as a shelter . . . ”, column 1, lines 4-7, the Boyer “vault” device requires that there construction forms a “vapor-tight enclosure . . . and . . . preventing water from seeping into the vault to damage the property in the vault”, column 3, lines 14-18. Thus, Boyer is primarily used for protecting property and not as a “shelter” for people. Additionally, Boyer is too large to be used in limited spaces such as garages since it would take up to much space. Furthermore, Boyer has almost no other utility when not being used as a shelter.
Various other types of shelters have also been proposed but also fail to provide safe relocatable habitats for persons and/or pets. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,972 to Silen; U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,262 to Carren et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,606 to Chardon et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,866 to Poole; U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,128 to Parsons; U.S. Pat. No. 6,131,343 to Jackson; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,345 to Hope et al.
Many of these proposed devices has problems that would prohibit their wide use. For example, Carren '606 is primarily used for storing liquids, and not as a protective shelter for people. Chardon '606 is designed for “protecting large-size objects, such as open-air machines, cycles, motorcycles, windsurfers, etc.”, abstract, and is also not designed for protecting people.
Poole '866, Parsons '128 and Hope et al. '345 are shelters that require some portion to be inserted into the ground making the shelter permanent and not easily disassembled. In addition the subsurface installation is not practical and in fact dangerous to be used in many low level water regions such as Florida, since storms can potentially flood these below ground shelters.
Further, these patents require users access the shelters through a roof door, which causes inherent problems if debris falls on the top of the shelter and restricting the door from being opened. While Jackson '343 and Silen '972 propose above ground shelters, these devices have another problem which is similar to the other patents referenced above in that none of them would be practical in limited spaces such as garages since the shelters would take up to much space and eliminate space of automobiles, and the like.
Still furthermore, the existing shelter industry does not target shelters to occupants of mobile home parks, and the like.
Thus, the need exists for solutions of the problems with the prior art listed above.